Sometimes I just feel like ranting, sometimes a lame-assed survey has my attention and I feel a strong urge to fill it out. Sometimes I'm procrastinating from my real writing work, and hell, sometimes I'm just drunk. Whatever the reason, if I have something pointless and random to say, it'll be here!

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Saturday, September 01, 2007

WARNING: Semi-serious blog ahead...

Whoulda thunk one of these would come around? But no, I have a gripe that has to do with my actual personal real life. And since it's in my head, I figured I'd share it.

See, I'm one of those billions of people nowadays who strives to become a "professional writer." And god bless the internet for making it seem an achievable goal for everyone nowadays, no, that doesn't make the competition even worse...

Anyway, the point is, I'm at one of those place that I hate as a writer. First of all, let me say how much I love Movie Magic Screenwriter 6, which I bought at Comic-Con last month, came in the mail a couple weeks ago, and my God... it allows you to write an outline, and then build your script based off of that, on the same document. Which for someone like me, who can NEVER bring themselves to write an outline (mainly because I just can't deal with clicking between MMS and MS Word every goddamned time I need to be reminded of where I'm going with a script, which is ALL THE TIME), is the biggest godsend I could ever ask for. I've got a script I've been tooling with for a few years now, that I never got past page 20 on, simply because I couldn't figure out the point "B" between "A" and "C"... and thanks to this program, I can finally finish, simply because I can just jot notes down until I get to the place that I know, and continue from there, going back later.

So, back to my diatribe... first of all, let me say that I love my iTunes, as it picked just the right songs for me to here... as usual, I'm working on something having to do with religious overtones (it's a comedy, and again, as usual, the idea of Hell has a lot to do with it), and just when I get to a part in my notes where I'm jotting down the MASTER PLAN of the main demon... "On Our Own" by Bobby Brown starts playing. I couldn't ask for more.

Now, here's what irks me. I'm sure I'll get past it later, but right now, it's a pain in my ass. The fact is, as I just mentioned above, I've got a character that's suddenly revealed to have a MASTER PLAN. And that MASTER PLAN is what's gonna drive the final act of the script. Problem is, for any of it to make sense, that character has to EXPLAIN the MASTER PLAN. And not only that, but once it's explained, then QUESTIONS have to be asked which hold the logic of it all together, or explain why certain things don't quite make sense. ALL PLOT HOLES MUST BE FILLED. And for all this to happen, it takes quite a few pages. Pages of nothing but exposition. Which frankly, IS NOT EXCITING ON THE SCREEN. I mean, this stuff will probably only last maybe five pages... but that's still FIVE MINUTES of nothing but TWO HEADS TALKING! Sure, they're saying funny stuff... but still, NOTHING ELSE IS HAPPENING.

And this is the hurdle I have to leap right now... figuring out how to make all this exposition entertaining for that long of a time. Again, I'm sure I can do it... I mean, dammit, this blog aside, I'm willing to go out on a limb and say I'm a pretty good writer. But still... it's a pain in my ass right now, and given that I can't think beyond it in my script right now, I'm just gonna waste the rest of my creativity bitching about it. So there. Have a good night.

And hey... any writers reading this blog, anyone with comments or other forms of communication... feel free to reply with your own stories of pain, or random thoughts. As the great Tangina said, all are welcome.